Your favourite Nawaz performance? Vote!

'No short cuts, no sensationalism, but sheer talent is responsible for Nawaz's position as one of the finest actors of his generation,' says Sukanya Verma.

Nawazuddin Siddiqui is an extraordinary reminder of why nothing is impossible.

Hailing from a family of modest farmers in rural north India, a young man dared to dream of art and theatre.

Creativity alone isn't enough to survive and Nawaz took up a watchman's job before graduating from New Delhi's National School of Drama and moving to Mumbai.

The City of Dreams didn't welcome him with open arms and the struggle continued as he failed to graduate beyond a face in the crowd or nondescript roles.

Many years later, people would YouTube those scenes and feel awed by the familiar face they once overlooked.

Strange are the ways of belated success. His talent now appears to scream out in the interrogation scenes of Sarfarosh and Black Friday.

His quirky romp as Patna's Presley in Dev-D bears more heft and those tears in Munnabhai MBBS were definitely not cried in vain.

The shy, scrawny guy slowly and steadily stepped out of the shadows and worked his way to the top, leaving a powerful impression in everything that came his way till he was making a splash for his author-backed edge in indies and scene-stealing support in blockbusters.

No short cuts, no sensationalism, but sheer talent is responsible for Nawaz's position as one of the finest actors of his generation.

No surprise that his body of work is filled with rock-solid performances.

Here are 15 of our favourites.

Do VOTE for your favourite below!

Peepli [Live] (2010)

The actor is pitch perfect as the street-smart, small-town stringer whose conscience resists opportunist journalism at a great cost in the satirical gem Peepli! [Live].

Only an actor of Nawaz's calibre could have turned a supporting character into someone so memorable and winsome like he does in Ritesh Batra's critically acclaimed debut employing his exuberant energy to break the ice with Irrfan's somewhat distant colleague.

Ashim Ahluwalia's unsettling exploration of the C-grade film industry is not without its rewards, namely Nawaz's perfect encapsulation of an individual wanting to break away from a life of darkness and deceit.